iPad Pro Using iPad Pro and photography

[mebpenguin]

My 2009 MacBook Pro has finally given up so I'm very tempted by the 12.9 Pro after seeing the Affinity photo app. My questions are
Does iOS allow the editing of RAW images?
Is there a way of transferring edited images from the iPad to an external hard drive?

I'm an avid amateur photographer and have been using a 12.9 inch iPad Pro as my only computer for over a year now. The process that works for me is to shoot RAW + JPEG fine and import using the SD card reader. I shoot RAW + JPEG because photos cannot edit raw files and if you only shoot raw you end up with the very low resolution embedded JPEG in photos that gets edited and shared in that app.

For RAW editing I've found Polarr to be the best solution for editing and workflows. Lightroom Mobile is just too limited, in my opinion.

As others have mentioned, I don't think you can back up to an external hard drive, but I pay for 1TB, I guess now it's 2TB, of iCloud storage and backup all my photos there.

 

[Retroglide08]

I'm an avid amateur photographer and have been using a 12.9 inch iPad Pro as my only computer for over a year now. The process that works for me is to shoot RAW + JPEG fine and import using the SD card reader. I shoot RAW + JPEG because photos cannot edit raw files and if you only shoot raw you end up with the very low resolution embedded JPEG in photos that gets edited and shared in that app.

For RAW editing I've found Polarr to be the best solution for editing and workflows. Lightroom Mobile is just too limited, in my opinion.

As others have mentioned, I don't think you can back up to an external hard drive, but I pay for 1TB, I guess now it's 2TB, of iCloud storage and backup all my photos there.

Thanks, that's a good work around. Have you tried Inffinity Photo yet? I'm intrigued with how this performs

 

[mebpenguin]

Thanks, that's a good work around. Have you tried Inffinity Photo yet? I'm intrigued with how this performs

Only barely. I did purchase it, more for work stuff than for my own photo editing as I do some design stuff for work. I wanted to compare it to Pixelmator for that.

I did try to play around a little with the photo editing features. Honestly, my impression is that Polarr is a much more intuitive interface if all you want to do is make photo adjustments. If you really want to punish pixels, move things around, work with multiple layers, then Affinity Photo is definitely the more powerful tool. I rarely do things like that with my photos, however.

 

[DaniJoy]

Photo shop express can handle basic raw editing. It's a bit sluggish compared to a x86 system but it can be done. I don't do it much anymore because I noticed as the iPad Pro screen aged the color calibration was a bit off when printing or comparing images to my color calibrated screens. Last time I checked there was no way to imbed a ICC profile into the iOS system.

Moving files around is super annoying for me. I have rural internet so cloud is not a option.

Probally is work arounds for these issues but I never could figure it out.

 

[seadragon]

So, I've been trying to work out a good workflow for using the iPad to process my RAW files. I really like the experience of using the iPad and Pencil to work on photos. One thing that I find a pain is the fact that all photos must flow through the Photos app instead of being able to pull them directly into an app such as Lightroom Mobile. Not sure if the new Files app will allow this or at least allow an import directly into an iCloud Drive folder, bypassing the Photos app. I'd like to use the Photos app strictly as a place to hold my final product.

Importing bulk photos with the lightning SD card reader is quite fast thanks to the USB 3 speed.

I did a quick comparison of using Lightroom Mobile vs an app like Polarr. While Polarr is very nice and easy to use, I find that it doesn't have quite the same capabilities as LR. But, it does allow me to easily add a watermark to the photo which LR Mobile lacks.

For example, Polarr cannot tone down highlights like LR can. Check out the clouds in this photo. First was developed in Polarr (note the watermark) and the second is developed in LR Mobile.

Overall, I like using the iPad for this. Just wish the workflow was a bit more streamlined and that the apps were closer to their desktop counterparts.

 

[Riccof]

Hello,

I'm going on vacation in a couple weeks and wanted to know if it's possible to save/backup Edited RAW Files from my iPad.

To give you an idea of my "Workflow" I'll be shooting in RAW with my Olympus OMD EM5, transferring photos over to my 10.5" iPad Pro using the Lightning to SD Card reader to edit with Lightroom CC. Given this method, what would be the best way to backup/save those photos that have been Edited? I ask because I only have a 64GB model and I fear that if I kept all the edited photos on the iPad I might run out of space?

Initially I was thinking of maybe getting a WiFi external hard drive but I was told that I could maybe accomplish this using a cloud such as, Dropbox, iCloud, Google Drive etc.

Can anybody lend any advise or has anybody done something similar?

Any input would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you,

 

[pbird]

Hello,

I'm going on vacation in a couple weeks and wanted to know if it's possible to save/backup Edited RAW Files from my iPad.

To give you an idea of my "Workflow" I'll be shooting in RAW with my Olympus OMD EM5, transferring photos over to my 10.5" iPad Pro using the Lightning to SD Card reader to edit with Lightroom CC. Given this method, what would be the best way to backup/save those photos that have been Edited? I ask because I only have a 64GB model and I fear that if I kept all the edited photos on the iPad I might run out of space?

Initially I was thinking of maybe getting a WiFi external hard drive but I was told that I could maybe accomplish this using a cloud such as, Dropbox, iCloud, Google Drive etc.

Can anybody lend any advise or has anybody done something similar?

Any input would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you,

My understanding is that if you have internet access Lightroom mobile will upload the raw originals that you import on the ipad to the adobe cloud. Any changes you make in Lightroom mobile will be non destructive. And when you are home the raws including the edits will sync to your desktop/laptop automatically.

 

[TraceyS/FL]

I did a quick comparison of using Lightroom Mobile vs an app like Polarr. While Polarr is very nice and easy to use, I find that it doesn't have quite the same capabilities as LR. But, it does allow me to easily add a watermark to the photo which LR Mobile lacks.

For example, Polarr cannot tone down highlights like LR can. Check out the clouds in this photo. First was developed in Polarr (note the watermark) and the second is developed in LR Mobile.

Well, the Polarr greens are way better, the LR one is yellow. But yes, the clouds are so much better in LR.

I'm very much interested in this type of workflow, I don't have a great one right now at the computer either. Oops. I guess I need to deal with Photos, I haven't used it beyond dumping my phone pictures into.

 

[sparksd]

Hello,

I'm going on vacation in a couple weeks and wanted to know if it's possible to save/backup Edited RAW Files from my iPad.

To give you an idea of my "Workflow" I'll be shooting in RAW with my Olympus OMD EM5, transferring photos over to my 10.5" iPad Pro using the Lightning to SD Card reader to edit with Lightroom CC. Given this method, what would be the best way to backup/save those photos that have been Edited? I ask because I only have a 64GB model and I fear that if I kept all the edited photos on the iPad I might run out of space?

Initially I was thinking of maybe getting a WiFi external hard drive but I was told that I could maybe accomplish this using a cloud such as, Dropbox, iCloud, Google Drive etc.

Can anybody lend any advise or has anybody done something similar?

Any input would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you,

What I have done when I have not taken a laptop with me is to use a RAVPower FileHub to copy my RAW images from my camera's SD card to a small HDD at the end of each day:

https://www.amazon.com/RAVPower-Wireless-Portable-Companion-Streamer/dp/B016ZWS9ZE

To keep two copies as a backup, I do the above copy and then rename the day's DCIM folder on the SD card to that day's date - a new folder is created when the card is reinserted and the camera turned on. I use a 128GB SD card (or extra smaller cards) to have enough space to do that.

 

[Riccof]

My understanding is that if you have internet access Lightroom mobile will upload the raw originals that you import on the ipad to the adobe cloud. Any changes you make in Lightroom mobile will be non destructive. And when you are home the raws including the edits will sync to your desktop/laptop automatically.

If I were to Delete the edited photo from my iPad to free up space, do you know if this would still be saved in the "Creative Cloud"?

 

[canesalato]

Hey guys, Affinity photo was updated with much better Raw support.

 

[pbird]

If I were to Delete the edited photo from my iPad to free up space, do you know if this would still be saved in the "Creative Cloud"?

I myself have not ran out of space yet but I Just tried this with a couple of photos. And the photos were also removed from the cloud. So that will not work. What probably would work to free up space is to delete the Lightroom mobile app and then reinstall it. It will then sync with the cloud but now only the previews. At home you still will get the original raws back when you sign in with a desktop/laptop.

 

[stoplis]

For me Lightroom would be perfect if they just added dodging and burning with the pencil. Other than that I find it the best and easiest to use.
Most other apps like Affinity are more geared to doing major photoshop edits so basic photography tools (exposure, contrast, white balance, etc) are harder to find/use.

 

[darkarn]

Anyone tried using the GNARBOX with their iPad Pros? It looks quite awesome to say the least

https://www.gnarbox.com/

 

[sparksd]

Anyone tried using the GNARBOX with their iPad Pros? It looks quite awesome to say the least

https://www.gnarbox.com/

Looks nice but $299 for what it does is really pricey. For $39.99, I use a RAVPower FileHub to do a wireless transfer from an SD card:

https://www.amazon.com/RAVPower-Wireless-Portable-Companion-Streamer/dp/B016ZWS9ZE

Can transfer with FileBrowser and import with Lightroom (or other photo app) from there.

 

[darkarn]

Looks nice but $299 for what it does is really pricey. For $39.99, I use a RAVPower FileHub to do a wireless transfer from an SD card:

https://www.amazon.com/RAVPower-Wireless-Portable-Companion-Streamer/dp/B016ZWS9ZE

Can transfer with FileBrowser and import with Lightroom (or other photo app) from there.

Good point (I have something similar) but seems to me what we have works with only photos while the GNARBOX works with photos and videos

If the GNARBOX allows at least moving any file around (to/from SD cards, to/from iOS/Android devices, to/from USB storage devices). it will be very worthwhile

 

[sparksd]

Good point (I have something similar) but seems to me what we have works with only photos while the GNARBOX works with photos and videos

If the GNARBOX allows at least moving any file around (to/from SD cards, to/from iOS/Android devices, to/from USB storage devices). it will be very worthwhile

With the FileHub, I can move any format file and it works with iOS, Android, & Windows (my uses). It can also be used to copy/transfer directly from an SD card inserted in it to a USB device also attached to it (direct transfer). I use it to copy from SD card to attached HDD for backup when on the road (Canon DSLR RAW & GoPro videos). Also use it to stream videos from an HDD to my mobile devices (Android & iOS). Extremely versatile.

 

[darkarn]

With the FileHub, I can move any format file and it works with iOS, Android, & Windows (my uses). It can also be used to copy/transfer directly from an SD card inserted in it to a USB device also attached to it (direct transfer). I use it to copy from SD card to attached HDD for backup when on the road (Canon DSLR RAW & GoPro videos). Also use it to stream videos from an HDD to my mobile devices (Android & iOS). Extremely versatile.

Thanks, I see. Ain't sure where I got the impression that it works with only photos though. Are you using the app that comes with the RAVpower?

 

[sparksd]

Thanks, I see. Ain't sure where I got the impression that it works with only photos though. Are you using the app that comes with the RAVpower?

I use the RAVPower app when copying between an SD card and a USB drive with both attached directly to the hub, otherwise I usually use FileBrowser on iOS or a similar file mgr on Android. The reason for using it on the transfer is that if you use their app then the transfer is directly through the hub; with a third party app, it appears that the data follows a path through the host device and takes significantly longer (it's essentially two copies occurring though the data is not left on the host, it just travels through it).

 

[stoplis]

I have a Gnarbox (not tried it with my new iPad yet). I found it much better and easier to use than any wifi card reader that has usb. It definitely makes backing up images easier, I’m hoping it gets support for the files app along with Amazon Drive, then I can do the same level of backup I do now.

 

[chfilm]

Can you edit full resolution RAW and JPEG images in iOS on the iPad? In the 20-30MB range.

In my understanding you can, but Lightroom is limited in iOS, important features like the auto straighten lines feature are missing, also no support for presets yet..

 

[Donka]

I'll share my experience of using the iPad Pro at a recent wedding. I was working as a second shooter assisting my friend who was the main photographer.
Half way during the shoot as the guests were socialising and between some candid shots I backed up the Nikon RAW 24MP images to the iPad Pro via the latest Apple lightning SD card reader. I didn't do any official timings but they were being rendered on screen as they were imported a little quicker than an image per second. I did the same after the next round of photography while the guests were seated at their meal and we were having our meal in a separate room. Again,the ability to upload all the images with the SD card reader was a smooth and pretty quick exercise.
I now had this large screen to do a quick cull of any rejects - I simply swiped through them in the Photos app and marked all the rejected ones as favourites. When finished this, I just went into the favourites album and selected all images and deleted them. This puts them in the deleted folder so I can still get them back if needed later.

Back home, I did some editing with Affinity Photo and I can't overstate how good this app is for doing critical work on and image by image basis. The biggest gripe I have though and it is one that affects most iOS photo editors is the need to individually import each image that I wanted to work on. The one app that got this right was Photogene 4 which unfortunately appears to be abandoned. This app let you browse the camera roll and edit images without the need for the individual imports and all edits were stored in the app itself so the original photos were never modified. You then had the option of batch exporting images with options such as resize, watermark etc. If Affinity can add some of this batch processing to their Photo app then it could potentially be a game changer as it allows you to use the Photos app as a form of DAM while still giving you the full editing power with batch export on top. One point of note on Affinity Photo though is that the Shadows & Highlights adjustment under the Develop persona for RAW images is a little limited - the same tool under the Photo persona provides much more latitude for pulling back clipped detail. Affinity are aware of this and will hopefully be addressed soon.

While I was using the iPad for the image backups to what was on the SD cards in the cameras, you have various means of backing up images from the iPad when out in the field such as lightning flash drives or Wifi drives such as the RAVPower Filehub or Sandisk Connect - all of which I have tried and work well although the lightning drive is noticeably faster in operation.

TLDR;
In summary, it is pretty and quick and simple to import RAW images using the SD Camera kit, especially the latest revision on a new iPad Pro with USB 3.0 support. Photos app can be used as a basic DAM on the iPad. Affinity Photo is a very powerful app with great RAW support. Backing up images from the iPad Pro when out in the field is simple with the right tool.

 

[popcorn-in-sac]

TLDR;
In summary, it is pretty and quick and simple to import RAW images using the SD Camera kit, especially the latest revision on a new iPad Pro with USB 3.0 support. Photos app can be used as a basic DAM on the iPad. Affinity Photo is a very powerful app with great RAW support. Backing up images from the iPad Pro when out in the field is simple with the right tool.

Thanks for sharing your experience. One question I had was around the use of iCloud Photo Library. Do you use that feature on the iPad Pro you used for this? If so, are you disabling something to prevent it from uploading to iCloud?

I've recently tried about what you did in your scenario, but found that most (but not all) of the photos that I had uploaded looked blurry, as if it was showing me a thumbnail versus the full embedded JPG in the RAW file. I confirmed that if I turn off iCloud Photo Library, and just use the Camera Roll, this doesn't occur, and was curious if anyone else had seen something like that. I am using the iOS 11 BETA, which could be a factor, as well.

Thanks again

Mark

 

[Donka]

I don't use iCloud photo library so can't comment on that unfortunately since I can't rely on an Internet connection while out on the go. I know on the Affinity support forums, there were issues with RAW files when people have the iCloud Photo Library enabled - I think it was related to an option to optimise storage?

 

[popcorn-in-sac]

I don't use iCloud photo library so can't comment on that unfortunately since I can't rely on an Internet connection while out on the go. I know on the Affinity support forums, there were issues with RAW files when people have the iCloud Photo Library enabled - I think it was related to an option to optimise storage?

Thanks Donka. I'll check out their forums - thanks for the tip.